Oh wow, I’ve been tagged by Kathy Kehrli, the Irreverent Freelancer herself, for this blogging tips meme. So here I am saving your time, because I’ll be sharing what I’ve learned from a year-and-a-half’s worth of experience:
You Must Have a Life. What else will you blog about if you never leave the house? Part of the fun of blogging is getting to share new experiences, realizations, and whatever you’ll come upon as you live your life. And spending the whole day in front of a computer isn’t a life. But…
Nobody Gives a Damn About Your Personal Life. Unless you somehow find a way to relate your experiences to your audience. Rambling’s perfectly fine, so long as there’s something of value for your readers.
It Really is Publish or Perish. Interested first-time visitors will probably enjoy reading through your archives. But unless you create something new on a regular basis, there really is no reason why they should drop by again. Even immensely useful articles have a shelf life of one or two views.
Great Ideas are Fleeting. Have you ever thought of an idea so interesting and so useful that you simply have to share it with your readers? And when you finally get to blog, you either forgot the idea or can’t find a way to translate it into words? Join the club.
Your First Few Posts are Better Left Unread. Check out the first few posts of my personal blog, and you’ll see what I mean. You’ve been warned!
Popularity Equals Difficulty. As you gain a readership, you suddenly feel the pressure to perform and please your fans. Ironically, this actually leads to poorer blogging, as suddenly-popular bloggers change their voice/approach/technique to appeal to the lowest common denominator, dropping the style that made them popular in the first place.
Meanness Only Works if You Mean It. I’ve seen so many bloggers, including yours truly, be snarky or mean in an attempt to be cool, only to fail miserably. True snarkiness or meanness really does come from the heart.
And last but not least…
Self-Publishing is Cool. With a blog, you get to publish your thoughts and opinions, however and whenever you want to. And in a world where we can’t get everything we want, there’s something so satisfying about that.
So let’s see, who to tag?
Sasha
Markku
The Rising Internet Star
The problem is that one of the above doesn’t like memes, another rarely posts nowadays, and the last hates blogging about blogging. Any guesses on who’s who fellow freelancers?
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